As the fall semester comes to a close, students are encouraged to explore the diverse and expanding Spring 2025 course offerings from the Department of Business.
With a range of options spanning four majors, the department is committed to providing opportunities for students to enhance their academic experiences, whether by enrolling in these courses now or by planning ahead for when they are available again in future semesters.
“We have recently been able to promote some popular part-time instructors to full time positions and have been able to expand our offerings in ways that we are confident will be compelling to our students, who they already know well,” said Professor Sarah Abramowitz, John H. Evans professor of mathematics and co-chair of the Department of Business. “They also have extensive careers in industry and leverage their experience and contacts for our students.”
Three faculty members within the department recently promoted or soon to be promoted to full-time assistant professor of practice include Sean Mooney (Management) in Fall 2024, Ann Mills (Marketing) in Spring 2025 and Rob Roche (Sports Management, Marketing and Law) in Fall 2025.
Mooney will be teaching Business Executive Roundtable, a course first offered in the 2023-24 academic year. The roundtable exemplifies the university’s commitment to experiential learning by connecting students with experienced executives who expose them to real-world business challenges and opportunities.
Designed for juniors and seniors, this course provides a relevant link to the business world. Seventeen alumni from diverse industries and functions including venture capital, human resources, consulting, marketing and finance returned to Drew’s campus last spring to share insights and offer advice on contemporary trends in the workplace, career development and leadership.
“Through interactive and collaborative dialogue on campus, students gain an enhanced understanding of the current business environment and how academic concepts may be applied to real-world applications,” said Mooney. “The alums introduce students to numerous career paths available and offer feedback and counsel on how to best navigate their careers for long-term success.”
Mills will be teaching Artificial Intelligence Marketing in the spring, a brand-new course and a highlight of the marketing program. Through hands-on assignments, students will learn how to navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of digital marketing, including how to apply artificial intelligence tools effectively within modern marketing strategies.
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming numerous facets of marketing. From email campaigns to content creation, AI tools are reshaping workflows across the industry. Many companies are now considering integrating AI into their strategies as a best practice for the future.
“Augmented AI is transforming marketing, and the high adoption rate by digital marketers makes a thorough working knowledge of AI a necessity for students,” said Mills. “This class will tackle every marketing exploration and use case with an AI-first approach.”
The Work of Innovation: Creating Organizations that Solve Problems, led by Mills, will also be returning this spring. This course fosters entrepreneurial thinking, empowering students to transform their innovative ideas into practical solutions for real-world challenges. Guided by Peter Thiel’s book “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future,” students will progress from brainstorming concepts to delivering polished pitch presentations.
In past years, students enrolled in the course have represented Drew at UPitchNJ, a statewide collegiate competition sponsored by Nokia Bell Labs. Notable participants include Luis Enrique Lopez Rios (C ‘24), Tristan Santulli (‘25) and Ryan Perlee (C ‘21), who had the opportunity to present their ideas on behalf of the university.
Lopez won the Best Early Stage Startup award for his startup Scholasto, a platform designed to boost scholarship opportunities for underrepresented, college-aged people in Mexico. Santulli reached the finals for presenting Ski Share, a startup company that increases traffic to ski resorts while boosting the surrounding local economies.
Perlee pitched South African Wine & Liquor USA, a company that would bring lesser-known South African beers, wines and liquors to the U.S. market. Some of the sales proceeds would go to fighting childhood hunger in South Africa.
These students exemplify the kind of entrepreneurial mindset this course fosters.
“The companies we study and the ideas students develop change every semester,” said Mills. “There is fluidity to the ideas discussed in this entrepreneurship class, but there is also strictness and rigor in evolving a startup idea into a pitch.”
For the first time this spring, Roche will offer Business Negotiations, a course that will equip students with practical techniques to tackle negotiation scenarios in the professional world. The course emphasizes skill development in communication, strategic planning and conflict resolution, preparing students for success in high-stakes business environments.
“It’s going to have a lot of practical experience in terms of business and how to negotiate,” said Roche. “We negotiate every day in our lives, especially in business. Negotiating is a skill that can be honed.”
The revamped Consumer Behavior course will return as an intermediate course. Christopher Andrews, associate professor and chair of sociology, will be teaching this course. An important course in the marketing program, it will task students with understanding consumers and their preexisting attitudes, cognitive biases and similar patterns which shape perception, thinking and decision making.
“One of the misconceptions about consumer behavior is that it focuses on what marketers can or may do to consumers,” said Andrews. “Once we have a better understanding of consumers and the process of consumption, then students of business and marketing will be better positioned to make informed decisions and actions that take into account these preexisting patterns and tendencies.”
In previous years, Consumer Behavior was an upper-level course. Further changes made to the course for the spring include the integration of a work-based learning component developed by the Council of Independent Colleges’ Work-Based Learning Consortium.
Additional offerings from the department included major-specific capstones such as Accounting Theory and Practice, returning favorites such as Principles of Management and new offerings such as Principles of Business to Business Marketing.
The Department of Business continues to grow and never sits still. To learn more information on course offerings and department updates, please contact Sarah Abramowitz or Steve Firestone.
Benjamin Castro is a senior double-majoring in marketing and business with a minor in history.
Featured image courtesy of Pexels.com.